To champion World Mental Health Day on October 10, children’s comic Beano has a created a special yellow strip to show Beano’s support for YoungMinds’ #HelloYellow campaign. The special edition strip, which centres around this year’s theme, ‘How You Feel Matters’ went on sale on Wednesday, October 5, which explores Dennis’s mental health featuring his ‘Numskulls’.
The Numskulls are a series of Beano characters who live in our heads. They control our brain and all our senses, so if they’re having a bad day, we probably are too. The strip encourages children to talk about their mental health, and shows how not doing so can affect their wellbeing, highlighting the fact that children matter and so do their feelings.
YoungMinds’ #HelloYellow campaign encourages people to wear yellow to show their support for creating a brighter future for young people’s mental health. Beano has a longstanding partnership with YoungMinds, the UK’s leading charity fighting for children and young people’s mental health.
Mike Sterling Beano’s Director of Mischief said, “There is more and more research highlighting the positive effects that reading has on the mental health of young people and we are proud that our continued partnership with YoungMinds promotes reading for children. I hope as many children as possible can read this week’s edition and show that mental health issues affect everyone, even Dennis!”
Deirdre Kehoe, Director of Training and Services at YoungMinds said: “The number of young people needing mental health support is growing every day but too many face barriers when they try to get the right support. We can’t let young people face these challenges alone.
“Wearing an item of yellow for Hello Yellow is one little thing we can all do to support the young people in our lives and by raising vital funds for YoungMinds, we can make sure no young person feels alone with their mental health.”
With research showing that reading has a positive effect on children’s mental health and the fact that one in five children don’t own a book, Beano will be giving away 20,000 free Beano comics for households to claim on October 10 via shop.beano.com/free-comic.
To find out more about #HelloYellow and how you can take part, visit www.youngminds.org.uk/helloyellow.
